One of these genes is already known to be involved in prostate cancer.

The study, published in the journal Nature Genetics, brings the total of known genes or genomic regions implicated in type 2 diabetes to 16 including JAZF1. This gene contains a separate variant that has been shown to play a role in prostate cancer but there is no known relationship between them.

"We have about 25,000 genes and we've found a very small number by genome wide studies, so to have the same genomic regions come up in studies of different diseases is actually pretty interesting," study researcher Laura Scott of the University of Michigan said in a statement.

"The remarkable recent progress in identifying regions of the genome that increase risk to diabetes -- from three to 16 in only a year -- will help us unravel the complex basis diabetes and may suggest new and better tailored methods to prevent or treat this disease," said University of Michigan's Michael Boehnke, the lead scientist of the Finland-United States Investigation of Non-Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus Genetics study group.